


Tangled Tattoos

by MelyndaR



Series: (Mis)Matched Perfection [1]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Tattoos, F/M, Multi, Polyamory, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 02:10:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7916335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deep down, Peggy had always known that she was a… well, what her mother would politely call a “rare bird,” but in this case, the older she grew, the more she saw that Amanda Carter didn’t necessarily mean it as a compliment. Truth be told, though it was a rarely acknowledged fact, Peggy had been born different. <br/>She had been born with not one, but four soulmate tattoos in a neat little row from her breastbone to her belly button – easily hidden, yes, but not so easily forgotten about. Each of them were a strange little bird icon with its wings spread – the colors of maroon, caramel, forest green, and pale yellow.<br/>And Peggy had no idea what to do about any of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tangled Tattoos

Deep down, Peggy had always known that she was a… well, what her mother would politely call a “rare bird,” but in this case, the older she grew, the more she saw that Amanda Carter didn’t necessarily mean it as a compliment. Truth be told, though it was a rarely acknowledged fact, Peggy had been _born_ different.

She had been born with not one, but _four_ soulmate tattoos in a neat little row from her breastbone to her belly button – easily hidden, yes, but not so easily forgotten about. Each of them were a strange little bird icon with its wings spread – the colors of maroon, caramel, forest green, and pale yellow.

And Peggy had _no idea_ what to do about any of them. For all of her travels, the war started and ended, completely flipping her life inside out at least four times in the process, and she still hadn’t met any of her soulmates.

Then she walked into her first day of working for the SSR.

* * *

Daniel smiled as he walked from his car to the “telephone company,” noticing the teenage couple parting ways at the boutique a couple doors down – a young man walking his soulmate to work, by all appearances. They had been holding hands, but when they stepped apart he noticed the flash of identical red and white shapes on their palms.

Soulmates, absolutely, then.

He turned his back to them, giving them their privacy when they leaned in for a quick kiss. As the boy jogged away, Daniel looked down at his own right hand, and the single red soulmate tattoo that had been there since he was three years old. He was in his mid-thirties now, and had long been hearing all about girls and grandbabies from his mother, but he was determined to wait for whoever the red eagle on his hand represented. He knew she was out there, and he had even figured out that his tattoo was of the SSR logo, so why _wouldn’t_ he wait for her?

He just wished that she would show up so that he wouldn’t have you, you know – _wait_ any longer.

“Sir? Are you going to stand there, or can I go into work?”

Daniel startled, balance and his crutch teetering dangerously, and the woman who had jerked him from his reverie quickly reached out to steady him.

“My apologies,” she said. “I didn’t mean to-”

Daniel waved the sentiment away, moving to open the door for her instead as he asked cordially, “I take it you work for the phone company?”

“Something like that,” she murmured distractedly… because her gaze was arrested by the hand that he had waved away her apology with.

 _Was she saying that she worked for the SSR_ proper _?_ Daniel wondered, gesturing her inside so that he would have more freedom to ask her.

Instead, she asked, “I’m sorry for this, too, but… may I see your tattoo?” She swallowed, adding, “It’s a soulmate tattoo, I presume?”

“Yeah,” Daniel started to understand what _might_ be happening here as he lifted his right hand for her inspection.

She reached out to touch the mark on his hand, looking a little awed, but then she seemed to come back to herself, drawing her hand back to her side and looking him over a little warily. “Would you mind,” she asked in a strangely strained tone. “Meeting me at the L&L Automat after work, please?”

“Sure, I can,” Daniel shrugged agreeably.

And then she was suddenly moving, past him and straight into the office quicker than he could catch up with as he called quietly, “Wait, I don’t even know your name!”

* * *

“Margaret Carter,” Jack drawled, sitting down on the edge of the new recruit’s desk. “Nice to meet you. We’ve all heard a lot about you.” He smiled, adding, “And wouldn’t it be nice if you were as… _skilled_ as people say you are, sweetheart?”

Agent Carter’s eyes narrowed as she stared at him. “I don’t believe we’ve met, have we?”

“That’s Jack;” Jack’s head swiveled as Daniel came up behind him, an expression on his face that Jack wasn’t sure how to translate. “He’s a jerk, and you can ignore him all you want.”

“Ouch, Danny Boy,” Jack objected, feigning hurt even though he’d learned months ago to let the little barbs the two of them shot back and forth roll off of his back.

“You’ll live,” Daniel promised with a roll of his eyes.

Jack just smirked, and, in a flash of good will, offered his hand to Agent Carter for her to shake, saying, “You know, you can ignore him, too, if you like, Marge.”

“I don’t think I will,” she replied archly, but her tone didn’t match the hesitant look in her eyes as she glanced down at his hand before shaking it.

“What?” Jack asked, looking down at his own hand – at the red eagle that had been there for the past thirty-two years, the same eagle that was on Sousa’s hand, as a matter of fact.

“Your mark matches his,” Carter pointed out softly.

“Yeah,” Jack nodded, watching her carefully as suspicion sparked in his chest. He took in the red hat that she had perched on the edge of her desk – the exact same color as the mark he and Daniel shared – and made the decision to reveal quietly, “I’ve got a mark the color of caramel on the bottom of my foot.”

“Meaning he’s your platonic soulmate.” Carter was supposed to be a first-rate code breaker, so that Jack had heard, but she seemed a little slow on the uptake to him as she turned to Daniel and asked expectantly, “And he’s yours?”

“No, actually,” Daniel shook his head. “He’s not.” Mismatched soulmarks were rare but, unfortunately, not unheard of. “I’ve only got the red mark on my hand.”

Jack saw Carter swallow, and though her eyes no longer betrayed her, she still seemed a little nervous to him as she looked between him and Daniel.

“Is something wrong?” Sousa asked her.

“No,” she replied quickly. “But…” she turned to Jack. “I would like you to join Agent Sousa and I after work, if that’s alright? I’d like to speak to you both about… well, a private matter, I suppose.”

Jack looked at Carter for a beat, then switched his gaze to Sousa, and he could see his own suspicion mirrored in the other man’s eyes. It made _sense_ that Carter might be their shared soulmate, _but was she?_

* * *

Peggy dropped her head onto her folded arms, stifling a groan as Angie went to refill her cup of tea. She’d just finished telling her friend – in hushed tones – about meeting two of her soulmates in her place of work today. Angie was one of the few people Peggy had ever chosen to trust with her unusual secret, and given what had already been revealed, she had a feeling the situation was only going to get stranger.

She was apparently Daniel’s only soulmate – _poor man_ – and Jack and Daniel were mismatched soulmates in their own right.

It was an understatement to say that she was nervous to discuss it all.

“Are you certain I can’t just… slip out the back before they come in?”Peggy asked Angie pitifully as

“I’m sure,” Angie smiled encouragingly at her as Peggy lifted her head from her arms. “Chin up, English, you’ll be fine.” The brunette’s eyes flickered over Peggy’s shoulder before she let out a quiet, appreciative whistle and murmured, “You wouldn’t happen to be waiting for a blonde and a brunette with a crutch, would you?”

Peggy’s pulse stuttered, but she didn’t turn around yet. “Yes.”

“Then don’t look now, but they’re coming over here.” Angie nudged her arm, adding meaningfully, “And stop complaining; you are one _lucky_ woman, English.”

Peggy gave her a wry smile – _yes, she had noticed the aesthetic, thank you very much, no matter how much this sudden turn of events had rattled her today_ – but didn’t have time to say anything before Angie scuttled away only to be replaced by Jack and Daniel as they slid into seats across from her at the table.

“You, uh,” Daniel barely took the time to prop his crutch up behind his chair before he spoke, and got right to the point at that. “You said you wanted to talk to us?”

Jack added cautiously, “Is it about our soulmate tattoos?”

“Yes,” Peggy drawled. “Somewhat. I just thought you might like… after our conversation this morning, that is – for me to verify that I… well, I am your shared soulmate.”

Daniel beamed unabashedly at that, and already Peggy’s heart twisted, because it was for him that she was truly worried the most. _If she was his only soulmate, how was he going to take the news that she had_ three _more besides him?_

“But,” she added before anyone could get too excited. Jack tilted his head to the side; Daniel’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. Steeling her nerve, Peggy informed them, “I have two more soulmates that I have yet to meet.”

As she watched them – these two soulmates of hers that she had only just met – Daniel’s eyebrows flew upwards in surprise and Jack merely shrugged casually.

The latter spoke first, his tone as casual as his stance and expression as he admitted, “I always wondered if you might have more than Danny and I, since I have multiple tattoos myself. If you’re afraid that your other soulmates might bother me, they shouldn’t.”

Peggy – as well as Daniel, she noted – looked at Jack in surprise as she commented mildly, “That’s… kind of you, Jack.”

He shrugged that off, answering only, “It’s just a scenario I’d already thought through, is all.”

Peggy gave him a soft smile, accepting that explanation before she turned to Daniel and asked cautiously, “What do you think?”

She found that a part of her already truly wanted the approval of this soft-spoken man with the kind, dark eyes.

“Well,” Daniel drew in a breath before he said, “I can’t say I’d ever considered my soulmate being a soulmate to more than just Jack and I, so…” He thought for a moment before meeting Peggy’s eyes with a reassuring smile. “Yeah, I’m definitely surprised to be one of _four_ , but, for you, I’m okay with it.”

Peggy let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding, and she couldn’t help but reach for her soulmates’ hands, just… because.

* * *

Absence may have made the heart grow fonder, Peggy decided after a few months of working with the SSR, but _presence_ certainly did no such thing – at least not in the case of her relationships with Jack and Daniel. One man became as odious as he first appeared he might be – just like every other holier-than-thou, silver-spoon pretty boy that Peggy had ever met – while the other developed an opposite, but nearly equally annoying, habit of frequently looking at Peggy with puppy dog eyes and at times even following her around the office as such.

It was nearly a relief to be given a reason to punch a man in the face when he approached her in a dark alley.

That having been said, the man turned out to be one Edwin Jarvis, Howard’s butler and Peggy’s new partner in crime, third soulmate, and, at the moment, her _favorite_ soulmate as well.

Being around Mr. Jarvis was infinitely easier – and, in a way, far less complicated; he was already married, and for the time being that kept a lot of things… _out of play_ between them, as it were.

So, yes, the way things were currently going with, well, at least Jack, she felt that she could allow herself to say Mr. Jarvis was her favorite soulmate without feeling even slightly guilty.

She did feel slightly guilty for a lot of things, however – like keeping the truth of her investigation for Howard from Jack and Daniel – but eventually that truth, too, came out. As did the fact that Mr. Jarvis was her soulmate who correlated to her maroon tattoo… which left only yellow… which left Mr. Jarvis in a “sticky wicket,” as he might say.

After hearing that the Peggy’s final tattoo was yellow, he came to believe that his wife, Ana, might _possibly_ be Peggy’s final soulmate, since the designs of the birds matched… but if so, it was a mismatch, like Jack having a tattoo for Daniel where Daniel had none for Jack. Edwin was Ana’s only soulmate, but if Edwin’s instinct was right, and Peggy’s yellow bird tattoo did stand for Ana, he assured her his wife had more than enough love for the world over if it was necessary. However, having an instinct of her own – for how much the life that she led might upset Mrs. Jarvis – Peggy deemed meeting the woman _un_ necessary for now. Mr. Jarvis had made no small secret of the fact that his wife knew nothing of his “adventures” with Peggy, so why should she upset that situation simply for a _chance_?

It wasn’t something she was willing to do to Edwin.

So Jack remained a pain, Edwin remained a friend, Daniel remained a question mark, and Ana remained out of the picture.

Until months later, when she was in L.A., and Mr. Jarvis very casually worked things so that she would meet Ana. It wasn’t a life or death situation, by any means; it was about clothes, which meant that Ana, a tailor by trade, would be useful. Or so Mr. Jarvis insisted.

And he was right.

About everything.

Ana was a wonderful person, a wonderful tailor, and – above all else – Peggy’s fourth and final soulmate. When she realized that Peggy had her tattoo, she was overjoyed, and as time went on and the two women got to know one another, Peggy had to admit she couldn’t even tell that the bond was a mismatched one, not with how kindly Ana treated her. Even as Edwin nudged her towards Daniel, Peggy realized that Ana was very subtly trying to get her to explore the idea of a romantic relationship with Mr. Jarvis.

In the end, though, Daniel came first… just in time for them to learn that Jack had been shot, and was in critical condition in the hospital. Mr. Jarvis rushed them to his side, and when the butler came to the conclusion that neither Peggy nor Daniel were going to be moving a _centimeter_ from  Jack’s bedside until he awoke, Edwin and Ana unceremoniously started keeping their own ‘round the clock watch – on Peggy and Daniel, that was.

Peggy and Daniel, of course, resisted that from the start. In their minds it was too much of a reminder of Ana’s own recent shooting, and likely it truly was, but when their minds were set on something, Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis were apparently nothing if not stubborn.

A couple of days into this four-person bedside vigil, Peggy tried a different tactic. “You know, Daniel, not to be cruel, but the three of you could go home; I’m the only one here with any real sort of relation to Jack, and you could be out there finding the man who did this.”

“I’ve got Rose and a couple of our best guys working on it, Peg,” Daniel replied, something akin to irritation flashing in his eyes. “I want to be here with you and him.”

Ana, who had been curled up in a chair beside Daniel with a knitting project in her lap, looked at Peggy with surprise in her eyes. “Don’t you understand?” she asked, shaking her head a little.

Peggy’s expression must have betrayed that she did not.

Ana set aside her knitting and moved to crouch in front of Peggy’s chair, taking her hands as she informed her, “Peggy, we are _all_ connected – Edwin and I, you, Jack and Daniel – we’re all… in this strange, mismatched little group because of _you_. Some of us have tattoos for each other, some of us are only connected through you, but we _are_ connected, and we are _all_ here and we are all _staying_ here until Jack Thompson wakes up.

“I don’t know if you realize this or not, but both Jack and Daniel came into the hospital while I was here. Daniel,” she glanced at the man in question, who was suddenly blushing. “Came into actually visit me, but Jack would simply stop by the nurses’ station to ask after me. They came, and they cared, and every one of us intends to do the same here. Because that’s what a family does for each other.

“Maybe we’re a dysfunctional family, but… in our own way, we are a family now, to hell with whether or not we have each other’s tattoos.” Her tone turned ever so slightly flippant, and she grinned as she said airily, “I happen to care for you all equally anyway.”

“Oh, Ana,” Peggy chuckled softly under her breath as she said, “I love you.”

Ana squeezed her hands tightly, declaring with a smile, “And I love you, Margaret Carter.”

“And everyone else, too, apparently,” Edwin said, smiling down at his wife as he lent her a hand back to her feet. “Very well said, darling.” His gaze turned a little more introspective as he repeated, “Very well said.”

“Almost made me cry,” an unexpected voice croaked dryly from the bed.

“Chief Thompson,” Edwin greeted him happily, but the one more sedate reaction was completely missed as Peggy and Daniel both stood from their chairs nearly fast enough to fall over, and Ana whipped around to face the bed with a sharp yelp.

“Jack.” If Peggy hadn’t had tears glimmering in her eyes from Ana’s impromptu speech, she knew she did now as she leaned over her soulmate’s bedside, raising a gentle hand to his cheek as she asked, “How are you feeling?”

“Like somebody shot me,” he muttered, and then grinned tiredly.

“I’ll go get the physician, then,” Edwin murmured, going all but unnoticed as he slipped out.

“Oh, _Jack_.” Peggy was caught somewhere between a laugh and a sob, and she felt outright overwhelmed. Unsure of how else to express what she was feeling, she leaned down and kissed him.

To her surprise, Jack did his dead level best to lean into the kiss, even as weak as he still was, and then said, “It’s about time for that to happen, Marge.”

 Peggy touched her forehead to his, still grinning even as she ordered, “Don’t call me Marge.”

Smiling softly, Ana moved to go around the bed, only for Edwin to return and move hastily to take the chair beside Daniel that she had recently vacated. She blinked in surprise at him, only for him to offer under his breath with a smile, “My lap is free.”

More _pretending_ to be miffed then anything, Ana narrowed her eyes and perched on _Daniel’s_ knees as the doctor checked Jack over. Daniel was quick to squash the surprise on his face, and, glad that Jack’s doctor wasn’t Ana’s as well – and therefore wouldn’t have an inkling that anything unusual was happening – he slipped an arm securely around her waist. Both of them ignored the incredulity on the faces of both of the British in the room.

“Well, Chief Thompson,” the doctor informed Jack with a smile after looking him over. “It appears to me that you’re going to make a full recovery, but we’ll, of course, have to keep you here a few more days to keep an eye on the beginning of your recovery and such.”

Jack smiled thinly, even with the prospect of a longer stay. “Thanks, doc.”

The men shook hands, and as the doctor turned to make his leave, he glanced around at them all and commented, “You’ve got a good bunch of friends, chief.”

“I do,” Jack agreed, but thought privately that Ana was right; the idea of them only being his “friends” was too much of an oversimplification, if it wasn’t just _wrong_ in some cases.

Peggy and Daniel were his _soulmates_ , no matter how much of a jerk he’d been to them in the past. He found himself looking down at his hands as he thought over the idea of perhaps issuing an apology if he could get it to be only the three of them in the room at some point.

Instead, what he noticed on his right hand stunned him into silence. Peggy’s red eagle had always been on his left hand… but now there was a yellow one on his right.

As the doctor finally left, Daniel smiled at Ana, asking, “Is this something we’re going to do now?”

She shrugged, returning a question for a question. “Do you want to?”

“Do _you_ want me to?” Daniel asked Peggy, drawing her into the conversation.

“I don’t see why you shouldn’t,” Peggy said easily. “I have you, and Jack, and Mr. Jarvis who are all at least _becoming_ romantic relationships…”

“You kissed me,” Daniel reminded.

“I had to be _shot_ before you’d kiss me,” Jack complained, looking up from his hand suddenly as he realized there was a conversation happening around him.

His expression perfectly straight even as his eyes twinkled, Edwin chimed in, “I blame Ana for… whatever we’re becoming, Miss Carter.”

“You can all call me ‘Peggy,’ if you want,” she replied, and then to Edwin, “I suppose we could blame Ana, in a way. After all, _I_ think it’s the way you’ve been… _looking after_ me since Jack was shot that started… you and I.”

Edwin beckoned to herm, and Peggy moved from one side of Jack’s bed to the other without a second thought, only squawking in surprise when the butler pulled her down into his lap. Still clearly uncertain, she asked Ana, “Is this normal for him?”

“No,” Ana shook her head, then thought before adding, “Well, perhaps only some of the time – when he’s extremely relieved, like when we find out that Jack is going to make a full recovery.”

“He,” Jack pointed a finger at Edwin. “Doesn’t care about me, and never has. Why should he?” here he looked to the man himself as he suggested, “Unless we’re blaming that on Ana too?”

Edwin scanned Jack’s body where he lay in the bed before he met his eyes steadily. “In a manner of speaking, I suppose we could. It’s bad enough that you were shot, which, I think, made me see you in a different light in the first place, and then…” He trailed off and looked at his wife.

Ana seemed to take this as a sort of cue, because she stood from Daniel’s lap, and moved to sit on the edge of Jack’s hospital bed instead, smiling softly at him as she took his right hand in hers, tracing the outline of the yellow eagle on his palm. “And then I woke in the middle of the night, sitting right here at your bedside, to find this-” She held up her hand for him to see the dark green eagle on her palm.  “-Appearing on my left hand. We were all here, and all surprised at it… but I’m happy to have it, if you are.”

Jack didn’t know what exactly he ought to say, not to that, not when painkillers were probably making his brain a little fuzzy in the first place. Instead, he took Ana’s hand and pressed her knuckles gently to his lips, hoping the action was enough. She leaned over enough to press a kiss to his forehead, and then took his hand once more as Daniel began to talk.

“So, kind of about what I asked Ana once the doctor left… you two getting those new tattoos sparked a bit of a conversation while you were asleep, Jack. While the four of us have all been here with you, I think we’ve all come to a conclusion.” Daniel looked around, waiting for Peggy, Edwin, and Ana to nod their agreement before he continued, “We’re all Peggy’s soulmates, and you’ve got both girls and me, I’ve got Peggy, Jarvis has both girls, and Ana has you and Jarvis. Basically, we’re all terribly, hopelessly a tangled bunch of mismatches. But… it’s taken you and Ana both getting shot for us to realize that we all care about each other.” He pointed at Jack before the blond could object, saying, “You came into this hospital to check on Ana even before you had her tattoo, so shut up for a second here. We basically came to the conclusion that we’d like to try all five of us being together, if that’s okay with you. If it’s not, you do what you want, but know that the four of us are probably going to do what we want too.”

Jack stared at the four people who were staring back at him, thinking for a very long, quiet moment. “No,” he said eventually. “Maybe it’s just the drugs talking when I say this, but that makes some sort of sense, and if the rest of you want to try it… well, if I can’t beat ‘em, I might as well join ‘em. Because she is right;” he squeezed Ana’s hand lightly. “We’re all some sort of a family, in our own cracked up little way.”

“ _Wonderful_ ,” Ana said emphatically, leaning in to give him another kiss on the forehead.

“I think,” Edwin added thoughtfully. “That I may even know of a way to… cement that thought, as it were – but not just yet.” He smiled, pressing a kiss to Peggy’s temple after he said, “For now, knowing we are what we are enough for me.”

Peggy grinned, surprised when she felt comfortable enough to curl into him as she agreed, “It’s _more_ than enough for me.”

All of her soulmates were here, and happy and alive, and she would take it. It was magnificent.


End file.
